I can see forcing children to attend a brief event (2 hours or less) and be polite to everyone whether they really want to do it or not, since it is actually a useful skill to develop. HOWEVER, a week??? That's beyond unreasonable.
I know. I don't know how they ever thought a week would ever work. How many 13 year old girls can you have in your house for a week? Also the town they lived in was some tiny backwater with absolutely nothing to do so it held no appeal whatsoever even if she had been the most popular girl in school, but as I said they were a strange family.
As an aside, many years later (I think I must have been about 27) she tracked me down at work via mutual acquaintances through her sister and basically stood in our showroom pretty much demanding she be allowed to come and stay with me at my flat as she was in a bad rel
ationship and had all sorts of other problems. I was in no position to help her and she got really angry saying her family had 'taken me in' for a week. It was hugely embarrassing as my boss had to ask her to leave as she created a real scene.
Gramma Dishes: Her dad made me very uncomfortable. Nothing you could put your finger on but just not a nice man.